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Unveiling hard seededness and enhancing seedling vigor: Genotypic response and priming strategies in mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) under temperate conditions

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.9754
Submitted
1 June 2025
Published
06-10-2025
Versions

Abstract

A comprehensive study was conducted at the Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura, SKUAST-Kashmir, to evaluate hard seededness and the effect of seed priming in mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) genotypes over two consecutive years (2021 and 2022). Genotypic variation for hard seededness was evident. In 2021, 80 of the total genotypes evaluated showed full germination, 36 had 1-5 hard seeds and 7 had more than 10 hard seeds, with hard seed counts ranging from 0 to 12. In 2022, only 52 genotypes achieved complete germination, while 60 genotypes had 1-10 hard seeds and 10 genotypes had more than 10, for a total range of 0 to 22 hard seeds. Notably, genotype PKV-AKM-4 consistently produced the highest number of hard seeds in both years (12 in 2021 and 22 in 2022). Furthermore, a seed priming experiment indicated substantial differences between mung bean genotypes and priming regimens. Rhizobium-treated seeds had the greatest average root depth (9.1 cm), root weight (0.099 g) and shoot weight (0.133 g). Trichoderma treatment produced the longest shoot length (7.3 cm), followed by Pseudomonas treatment, which produced a shoot length of 6.4 cm and a root weight of 0.064 g. These data show the effectiveness of microbial seed priming, particularly with Rhizobium and Trichoderma, in improving early seedling vigor in mung bean genotypes. The observed variance in hard seededness highlights the possibility for developing mung bean cultivars with lower dormancy to enable uniform field emergence. Microbial seed priming, notably with Rhizobium and Trichoderma, has been shown to significantly improve root and shoot development, as well as early seedling vigor. Adoption of these priming approaches can improve crop establishment and production stability under a variety of agroclimatic conditions.

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